


Dew she, Don't she?

by SwimmingTiger



Category: Star Stable Online, sso Wild West AU - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 06:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13921524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwimmingTiger/pseuds/SwimmingTiger
Summary: Little May Dew follows the schoolmarm into the Brothel. It's not what you think.Inspired by/goes along with CLightlee's Wild West au





	Dew she, Don't she?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Act I: The Disreputables](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13766259) by [Burgie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie), [ClaraDiamondsong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaraDiamondsong/pseuds/ClaraDiamondsong), [clightlee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clightlee/pseuds/clightlee), [copperheadpony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperheadpony/pseuds/copperheadpony), [eyeskillercold](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyeskillercold/pseuds/eyeskillercold), [NumiTuziNeru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NumiTuziNeru/pseuds/NumiTuziNeru), [Shadowlord13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowlord13/pseuds/Shadowlord13), [SwimmingTiger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwimmingTiger/pseuds/SwimmingTiger), [ZDusk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZDusk/pseuds/ZDusk), [Zebrablanket](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zebrablanket/pseuds/Zebrablanket). 



On a Thursday afternoon, just before supper, Miranda heard footsteps and voices on the porch, and a brief knock. The place was open for business, but it was still considered good etiquette and customary to knock before entering the grand establishment. Miss Starr, the local schoolmarm, poked her head in.

"I meant to wait for you to answer Ma'am, just wanted to grab a couple of books right quick before I head home." She was still in the doorway, holding it mostly shut. Her face looked weary and she seemed a little twitchy.

"Well, come on in. It's considered uncouth to lurk in doorways, you know." Miranda fanned herself with a silver fan, and smiled at the gentleman she was speaking with in the office parlour. He was a tall gangling miner, fresh from the outdoor bath Miranda offered to some of her... harder working clientele. The miner was holding his hat in his hand, in cleaner clothing than the ones he put on this morning, and his freshly washed hair was combed and plastered to his head. It dripped slightly on the velvet chaise, but Miranda was alright with that. Better than grit and grime. He looked confused as Miss Starr strode in and headed straight for the bookshelves, followed by another, younger, redheaded girl. She had been asking the schoolmarm questions in a rapid fire fashion but stopped for a moment to ogle the rooms. May Dew had never been in the Calico before. 

"They come here too? For...?" The man was aghast.

"Francis, you silly goose. They come here for the knowledge my library provides. If nothing else, I provide for this town. One way or another. Should probably mine your business, none the less." She laughed gayley and slapped her knee. He looked even more confused. "Mine your... oh never mind. Now you head on into the salon and grab yourself something cool to drink. I'll send Molly over in a moment." 

In the library Zoe was hurriedly looking for a book on philosophy. Behind her May resumed her questions. 

"But how does the caterpillar  _know_ when its time to change? Are they born knowing how to fly cause their ma surely ain't around to teach them I reckon? And where do they keep all the thread? Izzat why there's worms sometimes in the mending box? They eat all our thread up and make their own?"

Zoe closed her eyes and sighed. She began looking for a book on insects instead. 

"I thought you were supposed to know all this Miss Zoe?"

At this the schoolmarm sighed. "Yes, but I generally give lessons  _during_ class, and not on my way home for supper." 

May considered this for a moment. "And why come some eggs have baby chickens and some just have yolks? And how does the rooster know to wake us up in the morning? And why...?

Zoe turned to Miranda, who was watching in amusement. "I hate to impose, Ma'am, but may I use your washroom?"

Miranda smiled graciously. "Oh course dear. Right down this hall, then around the corner." 

As the schoolmarm hurried through the arch, a heavyset dirty-blond girl appeared in the hallway, wearing a loosened white corset over a looser shift. The parlour was suddenly filled with the smell of orange blossom water. "Ma'am?" She asked, pulling a long coil of hair behind her ear. Miranda waved to the left. 

"Frank, the miner. In the salon. Clean as a whistle."

"Praise to the Virgin Mary!" The girl said in a lilting Irish brogue, and adjusted her corset to be more flattering to her already generous cleavage as she strode off down the hall. When she opened the door, a piano was tinkling and someone was using heavy boot falls to keep the beat. "Franky!" She called happily, then the door shut, taking the sounds with it. 

Once alone in the library, May fell silent. She eyed Miranda, but hastily shifted her gaze to the bonsai tree, then the painting of bullfighters, then the Chinese fans hanging on the wall. She picked up a little jade horse but set it down once she realized Miranda was still watching her. 

They spoke at the same time.

"How is your Mama, May Dew?"

"I"m not 'aspposed to talk to you Ma'am." 

"If you were curious enough to come into my house, you can be polite enough to make conversation." 

May didn't seem to know how to respond to this. She put her hands in the pockets of her dungarees and looked down at her worn and dirty boots. She stepped off the pretty rug and onto the wooden floor. "Mama is having fits still. Can't stop coughin. She calls it her death rattle. Said great granny had the same thing afore she passed." 

Mirandas brow furrowed. At one point in time, she brought over some food- the cook at the brothel had made too large a pot roast and she took a great porcelain tureen of stew with potatoes and carrots to the Dew family farm. It was hidden, a ways out of town, and were the nearest neighbors to Mirandas real home- the Casita. This was after one of her ranch hands had found a Dew brother, fainted, near the edge of her property, and they had nursed him back to health. He was a skinny thing. Too skinny. Mrs. Holdsworth, who lived on Mirandas property and took care of her daughter, tsk tsk'd as she revived and fed him.  He had been looking for a lost lamb, he said, without having so much as a slice of bread in his belly and only some sour milk in his canteen. He ate heartily, and gulped down as much water as he could while at the Casita, then mumbled a 'thanks' as he headed home. So Miranda and her young daughter, Rose, walked over and paid a visit to the neighbors, but no one answered the door... in spite of the cookfire burning, and whispers they heard inside. They left the tureen and a small bouquet of wild flowers on a barrel near the door. 

Miranda wasn't offended, at first. She figured they had their reasons, and decided to respect their privacy. Until the tureen showed up at the back gate of the Brothels yard, filled with week old stew and accompanied by a very rude note. She decided then that she wouldn't let any of the Dew youngin's die on her property, if it happened again, but she also wouldn't offer anymore charity. 

She rang a little silver bell on her desk. May watched as a dark haired, dark eyed girl appeared and Miranda whispered orders to her. The girl nodded and ran off to the back. 

"Does she.."

The madame sat at her desk and folded her gloved hands. "Does she what, May?"

May, remembering her orders, hesitated. 

"You are already in my house and on speaking terms with me, Miss May, no need to be coy. You got the horse saddled, may as well take it for a ride."

The girl smirked, but it faded quickly. "Well ma'am. I was just... Do they really uh..  _sin_ up there? All these girls? Granny and Ma say its a _house of sin_. But they won't say _which_. I asked if it was Gluttony or Greed or Lust or Sloth or Anger or the other one that I can never remember and she just told me to never-you-mind what sin and to go check for eggs in the pen and when I asked Granny she said if I kept that up she'd give me a whuppin and my brothers said I wouldn't understand but they were laughing so I know it must be something.'" 

Magdalene, the dark haired girl, reappeared with a small bottle of brown liquid and tiny burlap package. She set them on Mirandas desk and went back upstairs. 

Miranda thanked her, and made a gesture to the velvet chair for May. 

May sat at the edge, hoping her dungarees weren't _too_ coated in dust. They usually were. 

"Would you like to know a secret, May?" the Madame said with a wink. 

May pondered this for a beat. "Well, yes ma'am I suppose I would."

"Magdalene, that girl there. She fixes medicinal potions and tinctures. Her grandfather was a healer down in Mexico. She knows of many restorative herbs, and certain tree barks, and even what stones to use to cure what ails us. You will notice my girls and I rarely get sick." The madame added with a touch of pride. "That's what _she_ does here."

"And I have a girl who sits on the roof and studies, or teaches other girls to play chess. _And if you ask me she needs to cease because I have not won a match in almost a_ year." She muttered. "In reality, she is my lookout, and informs me when someone is coming into town that I may not wish to entertain here. And then I have Delphine, who does the mending and sewing for us all. She makes the most beautiful gowns" 

They were interrupted when a sandy haired girl and a drunken, balding gentleman burst through the salon doors and passed the archway that looked into the parlor. She was wearing his derby hat and looked decidedly less drunk than he. The girl raised an eyebrow and Miranda gave a curt nod. The man was paid up and in good standing. The sandy haired girl hooked an arm in his and pulled the man upstairs. He was singing a sea shanty. 

"That was Penelope. Her companion likes to read sonnets to her while she fans herself by the window, and makes like she's swooning over his orations." 

May tilted her head to the side, quizzically. 

"I have girls who clean- Matilda and Leigh. Lisbeth tends the garden, and one girl runs messages for me in the dark of night. Two of my girls take fine care of the cow and chickens out back and one, June, maintains the firearms we keep for protection." 

"But what do they do with all the men paying visits?"

Miranda chuckled. "Well, as I mentioned, that one likes to read sonnets. We have a client who's keen on having a pretty girl read _to_ him. One enjoys to have his hair washed. A couple of em prefer to sleep on a womens' lap after a hard days work, a few just like having a gal to converse with about this and that, and every so often, we get someone who just loves the cooking. Having a pretty face sittin' across from them as they do so is just a bonus. Usually something they aren't getting at home. And I won't lie to you. Some men do come here for .. pleasure. If I remember correctly I really only have a couple of ladies who quite enjoy that. And they are free to- they aren't married!"

"That's it? That ain't sinning! Why don't you tell people?" 

"As I mentioned, this is all a secret- one I trust you to keep. What my clients do here is their business. Ordinarily." The madame lowered her eyes.

"Then why are you telling me?" May seemed skeptical. 

"You look trustworthy. Can I trust you with something else?"

May thought for a moment. No one had ever called her trustworthy. It sounded important. 

"Well ma'am I reckon you can. Trust me that is." She sat a little straighter in her seat.

Miranda wrapped the small bottle and satchel of herbs in a brown paper package. "Do me a favor. Take this to your Ma. Tell her to drink one spoon full of the liquid before bed. And there are herbs in here, to make em into a tea for her to drink. It should help with her fits."

"What kind of favor is this?" May asked, her face scrunched in bewilderment. 

"That's not the favor. The favor is, you tell your Ma its from that preachers wife. Chastity... Charity... oh its one of those virtues I do not possess." She threw up her hands in mock exasperation. "Anyway, your Mama will accept it if its from _her_. And we want your Ma well don't we?"

May nodded and hopped up from her chair to retrieve the parcel. 

"Next time you come round, we'll have Maggie show you what herbs to find, so you can make the tea yourselves, that sound alright?" 

"Yes, ma'am, thank you ma'am!" May nodded so vigorously that her red curls bobbed. 

"And.. I won't tell anyone you set foot in here _if_ \- you keep my secret for me, agreed?"

"Yes! Agreed!" May ran to the door. "Thank you!" She slammed the door but it immediately opened as she ran back in. "And tell Miss Starr I'll see her tomorrow!" She shouted as she closed the door, less firmly this time, and flew down the porch steps. 

Zoe peeked around the corner of the arch. Miranda spied her and laughed. "Miss Starr do you need me to brew something up for your stomach? That was an awful long visit to the commode!" She slapped the desk and hooted. 

The schoolmarm blushed and briskly walked over to the library to return the books she'd taken off the shelf. "I _love_ May." She said matter-of-factly. "She doesn't seem bright but she has such _great_ potential! She just..." She held her hands out and stared, as if the rest of her sentence lay in her palms.

"She has a lot of energy. And _so_ curious." 

"Yeah. I suppose that's it. The worst part is-" She slumped into the velvet chair. "She reminds me so much of _me_  .. when I was younger. It vexes me to be annoyed by her." 

Miranda walked round to the schoolmarm and patted her back. "You have an incredible amount of patience. You can handle it. As long as shes not fixin to take your job." At this they both laughed. 

"Ma'am? Is it true.. that most of the girls don't, um, _know_ the clients. In the biblical sense?"  

Miranda smiled and winked. Zoe seemed relieved. She knew some of the girls were closer to her age than the Madames. It was considered marrying age to some, and she knew there were mothers younger than she, but she loathed the thought of her peers being... exploited. She took comfort in the Madames smile. 

"Well, I better be off. Have to figure out something for supper."

"You goose. Cookie is making Arroz con Pollo tonight, you go fix yourself a bowl." 

The schoolmarm held her rumbling stomach and headed for the kitchen. She paused at the door. 

"So that Francis fellow?"

Miranda smiled and turned to look out the window. The sun was setting. It would be busy soon. "Only I'm allowed to call him that." She said, not turning around. 

"Alright, alright. Keep your secrets." Zoe muttered as she followed the scent of rice and tortillas to the kitchen in the back of the house. 

"No secret there- he's gonna have a hellavu time trying to walk tomorrow!" Miranda cackled. 

"MAYBE KEEP SOME THINGS SECRET!" the schoolmarm shouted from down the hall, which caused the Madame to laugh uproariously. 

Miranda wiped a tear as her laughter died down. She turned the the key that lifted the wick in the oil lamp near the Calicos sign. Fluffing her dark red skirt, she sat back at the desk, awaiting the next customer. Or interruption. 

She didn't mind either way. 


End file.
